From Russia With Love: Captive Minds
by Mischief's Angel
Summary: Bucky wants to leave the Winter Soldier behind him and help repair the damage that HYDRA has done, but a ghost from his past catches up with him in the form of a former partner from the Red Room. The only problem, their relationship is more complicated than the old files suggest and this woman is all that remains of HYDRA's super soldier projects. Winter Soldier/OC
1. Chapter 1

When waking up, the first thing someone feels is the sudden influx of oxygen in the painfully unused lungs. After that, senses quickly begin to return. Light floods into view in a painful flash and the lingering cold bites at skin. After this, coherent thought usually begins to return. For the Winter Soldier, however, panic always flooded in before thought. In his scattered mind, waking up from the cold meant pain, both for and from him. The more his thought returned, the less sense he could make. He couldn't have dreamed his temporary freedom. After all, you can't dream on ice. Maybe they had taken the memory again. Maybe…

"Buck? Can you hear me?"

He could hear the voice, but it was too bright to see anything but the white light. He struggled for movement for freedom of any kind, but he found that he was restrained. No matter the attempts, his left side was unresponsive and unbalanced. He couldn't move his arm. The light began to give way to dark shapes. In moments, the shapes began to focus down into the shapes of the people standing around. Bucky furiously blinked the light out of his eyes and, as he adjusted, he could more clearly see where he was. It was a medical facility somewhere he didn't know. He was strapped to a slanted table...or something like one.

"Buck?"

The voice returned, snapping his attention to the nearest silhouette. As he looked on, the face finally became clear to him, as well as familiar.

"Steve…?" he choked out, his voice mostly failing him after the long period of stasis.

"Yeah, it's me."

"Wh-where am I?"

"Wakanda," Steve explained, "You remember? We kept you here to look after you while we found a way to...fix whatever HYDRA did."

"I went back under…" Bucky recalled in a haze, "Because it wasn't safe to...to be awake."

"Yeah."

The reply sounded sad, like Steve was upset about the very mention of the reason. Realization began to seep into Bucky's thoughts. He told Steve to put him under until they found a way to fix what HYDRA had done to him. Here Steve was to wake him. Maybe he found a way after all! He met Steve's gaze with a hopeful smile, but Steve didn't seem to return the expression. He was, if anything, just as solemn and confused as before.

"Did…" Bucky dared to ask, "Is there a way to fix me?"

"We're trying, Buck, really," Steve reassured, "T'challa even has a few ideas, but we've never had this kind of problem before."

"Then...why did you bring me back…?"

"I know you made the choice to stay here until we fixed this, but you know I wouldn't be here earlier if it wasn't important. I need your help."

The process after the unfreezing went by fairly quickly. A nurse came to check on Bucky's vitals and basic motor function. He now sat up on one of the examination tables as Steve tried to explain their situation.

"When HYDRA fell a few years ago, SHIELD was too far gone. I thought it was best to take them both down together, to avoid that all happening a second time. There were still pieces of both sides that stayed underground. _Captain America_ led the rest of the Avengers to hunt down what was left of Hydra," Steve spoke, putting an emphasis on his hero title in an attempt to distance himself from the name for now, "But...turns out we didn't get everyone. HYDRA had survivors, like SHIELD did, but not many. Now...one of those survivors is hunting down what's left of SHIELD."

"So," Bucky wondered, "If you got your friends back, why do you need me? Don't you do this for a living now?"

"We tried," he sighed, "But there isn't enough of a trail between the attacks. Whoever this is, they clearly don't wanna be found. But, since they were HYDRA-"

"You think that the _Winter Soldier_ might be able to find them," Bucky huffed, "But I can't help you, Steve."

Bucky looked at his left side, where his cybernetic arm was still gone below the shoulder.

"Even if I wanted to."

"That," T'challa interjected, walking into the room, "Is where I come in. Wakanda has some of the finest mechanics in the world."

"We can't get your arm back," Steve added, "So we got you a new one."

"No," Bucky shook his head, "That's too dangerous. At least this way I can't hurt anyone."

"We all know that isn't entirely true," T'challa argued, "You still fight without it."

Bucky sighed and ran his hand through his hair anxiously.

"I know what I'm asking, Buck," Steve sighed, "It's a lot...but, if we don't stop this, people are gonna die. I can't let that happen. If you can remember anything that will help us, we need you."

"It's just not safe…"

"We can figure it out. You don't even have to go back into the field. That way, no one gets hurt. Just...help us figure out where they are and stop this."

After a moment of silence, Bucky released the breath he had been holding in.

"I'll try."

The two soldiers carried their gear onto the jet, preparing to take off. Steve checked with the pilot, before turning back to see Bucky staring oddly at his new hand.

"Everything alright?"

"It's just...so light," Bucky mused, "It doesn't feel normal."

"It's vibranium," Steve reminded him, "You get used to the weight."

The arm looked like his other one had, but it weighed significantly less. It would take time for Bucky to adjust to how well the limb moved without the original bulk and weight. When he had lost the arm, the red star on his shoulder still remained. Even now, he refused to let them remove it. As terrible as the symbol was, it was necessary to him. The symbol reminded him of all the damage that the Winter Soldier had inflicted, and forgetting that past wasn't a luxury he could afford. He needed to remember to keep from ever causing that pain again. He turned his gaze away from the arm and took his seat on the aircraft. As they took off, he allowed his thoughts to wander for the first time since he had been put under.

 _How could HYDRA have survived the Project Insight disaster. He knew they were widespread, but whoever escaped should never have been able to escape the Avengers. HYDRA's forces were scattered and their "assets" and experiments were all destroyed, except for one. He was the only one to have escaped Siberia for good. There were no bases left for someone to hide. Who could possibly have evaded the Avengers for this long while going after SHIELD? For that matter, there was no longer a strategy in hunting SHIELD. They were as broken as HYDRA and there was nothing SHIELD had that the world didn't already know about at this point. The only reason that someone would go after them is if they were still...following their last orders. Who else was left from the asset programs? No one. Other than the five soldiers that Zemo had killed, Bucky himself, and...no. No, she was dead._

The trip was far too silent for Steve's liking, but he couldn't find the words to pull his friend out of his struggling thoughts. It wasn't until they landed again that Bucky even spoke.

"Where are we?" Bucky asked, breaking a silence that had spanned hours.

"Safehouse...of sorts," Steve answered, "It's not top of the line, but it's all we have for now."

As they walked outside, Bucky took in his surroundings quickly. They were at an old bunker-like compound in the middle of nowhere. There were no visible signs or landmarks. They were well off the grid.

"This will be a fun talk," Bucky heard his friend sigh sarcastically, as they entered. There were a few people in the bunker, none of whom brought themselves to look at Bucky. It was clearly a small operation.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Frosty," another familiar voice called over to them.

"Sam, is he here?" Steve asked, ignoring the quip about Bucky.

 _Sam_. Bucky remembered him from before. He was one of Steve's friends and that was good enough.

"Waiting in here," Sam gestured, leading them into a meeting room of sorts. Around the table, Bucky recognized the people as Steve's teammates from the fighting about the Sokovia Accords. He also recognized one of them as-

"Fury," Steve nodded.

"You know," Nick began, "Last time I was here, it was because I was recovering from taking two soviet slugs to the chest. You wanna tell me why you brought the shooter back this time around?"

Bucky shifted uneasily, not knowing exactly what the man was likely to do and feeling defenseless.

"He can help, Nick," Steve stated firmly, "We need him."

"If Cap says he's in, he's in," Sam shrugged.

"And he _does_ kinda kick ass," the man who Bucky recognized as the voice behind Ant-man chimed in.

Steve shot Scott a look and the man just shrugged and silently agreed to hold further comments.

"Well...I can't say I like it," Fury accepted, "But it's your op, Cap. Let's find out what we're up against."


	2. Chapter 2

They had all gathered around the table, listening to Rogers walk them through the situation.

"SHIELD just got back on its feet, with the idea of being what the old SHIELD was supposed to be," Steve explained, "I get that it's a risky move, but there are a lot of good men and women working hard to try and build what they know is right, to _really_ protect people."

"So, SHIELD's back," Sam shrugged, "Why do I get the feeling we're not all here for a meet and greet with the new agents?"

"Because they're getting hit hard and fast," Steve continued, "And SHIELD hasn't been able to stop the attacks. They haven't so much as thrown a punch back, while agents are dying out there."

He paused for a moment, leaning against the table.

"What makes this worse is that we also don't know _why_ they're doing this. Not much of SHIELD's intel is even a secret right now, and they haven't been compromised. The most she's taken is low grade weaponry."

"She?" Barton cut in, "I thought we didn't know what this was."

"SHIELD doesn't know," Steve corrected, "But...we have a pretty good idea. We only have this to go on."

He slid a folder to the middle of the table, before Sam quickly turned it and opened it. The only contents were four or five damage reports from SHIELD locations and one poor quality photo, which seemed to be the last thing recovered from the agent who took it. The photo was looking up at the attacker, over the barrel of a gun. The figure holding the gun was a young woman, dressed in an all black tactical suit, with blonde hair tied up into a ponytail. While the image was blurred, her features were still fairly well defined.

"So, she led all this?" Sam asked in disbelief.

"Led it?" Steve sighed, "No. Reports say she was the _only_ attacker. She didn't just lead the attack. She was the attack. The closest reports that we can find suggest that she's either HYDRA or that she doesn't exist. Clearly, she's real. A rogue HYDRA agent with no sign of even slowing down. This is why we were hoping that Bucky might be able to help us stop her and save a lot of lives in the process."

"It's worth a shot," Scott agreed.

Sam slid the folder over to Bucky, who hesitantly looked into the damage reports. The damage was extensive and whatever security evidence that wasn't erased was the _only_ witness. As he moved the reports, the photo seemed to jump out at him in his mind. No…

 _He vaguely remembered the training room that the two were always placed in. The floors were lined with pathetic mats that truthfully wouldn't make any fall easier. The room itself was dark and cold, save for a few flickering lights in the middle of the ceiling. He could hear the determined grunts and hit after hit was deflected easily by his arms. The woman was relentless still, throwing more weight into the attacks, but to no avail. Her sounds became increasingly agitated and frustrated as she realized the effect that she had. Finally, in a last effort, she grabbed onto his left arm and used it as leverage as she dropped her weight and swung her legs underneath him, knocking his own legs out from under him in the process. As he fell, she used her momentum to swing around to his back, shoving him forward onto the floor, with her knee firmly placed into his spine. It was a good attempt, but it didn't help her in the end. His left arm reached up over his shoulders and grabbed her with enough force to throw her forward off of him. He quickly jumped up, as she recovered from hitting the wall. She leaned against the cold cement wall, catching her breath and wincing at the new pain in her ribs and arms. After being quickly pulled back onto her feet and shoved back into the middle of the room, she looked up at him with weak determination._

" _Again!" he barked._

"Bucky?" Steve pulled him out of his memories.

Bucky looked up at him, with a lost expression for a moment, before he quickly remembered himself.

"The date…" Bucky tried to explain, "The date on this photo is wrong."

"The date's right," Sam looked, "Was taken a week ago, right?"

"Yes." Steve answered surely.

"It can't have been!" Bucky protested with a sudden intensity that it caused a sudden nervous tension among the others, "This has to be five years old at least!"

"Why?" Clint wondered, "Could just be similar to another one."

"It has to be, because that woman...I know her!" Bucky continued, "And she's been dead for years."

"How do you even know for sure?" Sam asked, "I mean...we all thought the same about you for how many decades now?"

"I just know…" he insisted.

He could tell by looking around at their faces that they were all skeptical of how well his memory could be trusted. After all, this attack was a week ago. That was just the fact.

"Steve," Bucky sighed, looking up at his friend sadly, "I know she's dead, because I killed her…"

Before anyone could break the following silence, Bucky hurried out of the room.

"Buck?" Steve called after him, not hesitating before following him outside.

Bucky stared out at the dirt path that barely qualified as a road. He didn't even realize that his hands formed tense fists at his sides as his jaw clenched. He recognized Steve's presence behind him, but made no move to turn toward the man.

"I killed her. It's over."

"Well...I'm sorry, but she doesn't look dead to me," Steve replied, "And she wasn't dead to those agents that she attacked either. Since she's not dead, you wanna start telling me what she is?"

"Zola...when he got let go, he started working in SHIELD," Bucky recalled, "He fed HYDRA intel from SHIELD. This...this included Urskin's research about the Super Soldier program. With the research, they kept something else under wraps."

"What was it?"

"What they thought was all that's left of you: blood."

"SHIELD tried to recreated the serum, but there wasn't enough. I remember."

"Maybe not enough of _that_ formula, no, but they were obsessed with trying to make a new one from it," Bucky explained, "None of the test subjects were surviving any of the fake serum's, so they didn't use the blood. They didn't want to waste it on a weak lab rat."

"Rat meaning a person?"

"Yeah," Bucky sighed, nodding solemnly, "But in the late fifties, they brought in this kid. She was an accident from one of the agents there. The red room, they sterilize their agents most of the time, but this one was from somewhere else. This other place - the "Dollhouse" - they got sloppy. When the agent brought in this kid, the little girl was dying. Her mother would rather give her kid up for the good of HYDRA than have her die without serving the "greater cause." It makes me sick thinking about it."

"She gave up a kid as a lab rat for HYDRA?"

"In a last ditch effort, they put her through the tests, trying the variations of the serum."

"Which variations."

"All of 'em. Some didn't have any effect. Some almost killed her. Zola got desperate. He had to make it work. His obsession with you led to more and more tests on-...well, they eventually created one out of all the blood they had from you."

"Did it work?"

"Enough. She wouldn't be lifting any cars, but she was faster and stronger. She recovered from a place there should have been no coming back from."

"Where did you come into all of this?"

"When they did all of the testing on her, project Winter Soldier was still a work in progress. They were still trying to…"

His voice faded out as he gestured weakly to the side of his head.

"When they messed everything up up here," he continued, "Eventually, they thawed me out and made me train her. I didn't have a choice. She would train half to death and, when she was well enough, do it again and again and again. She became one of the best agents the hard way."

"The hard way?" Steve wondered, raising his eyebrows in question.

"She was always so angry," Bucky continued to remember, "When another agent would appear to be better than her...she would break the competition. Sometimes for good."

"Geez…" Steve huffed, "She ever try to beat you."

"She knew better. I was in charge of her whenever I was awake. She always listened to me like she was told. We trained together, worked together...hell, half the time, we were even frozen and stored in the same warehouse together. I was the only S.O. she never tried to lash out at."

"What happened? You said you...you know."

"It was years ago. We'd worked together, but I could barely remember any of it. I knew who she was, but...it was blurry. She got loose from HYDRA. She wanted to run away. They couldn't have her getting out like that, so...they sent me. I had to kill what I'd spent decades helping them create. I did it."

"It doesn't add up, Buck."

"I watched her bleed out on the ground at my feet, Steve! She was dead!"

"Somehow she's back," Steve insisted, "I don't know how. All I know is that if we don't stop her, people are gonna die. Could you find her?"

"Yes."

"Then you know what we have to do."

"Steve…" Bucky pleaded, voice cracking ever so slightly, "Don't...don't kill her. It's not her fault. She was just a kid."

"And now she's an assassin. I don't wanna hurt anyone, but, if it comes down to it, she's HYDRA and she's gotta be stopped."

Steve began to walk back toward the door to the compound, but Bucky instantly turned and grabbed his arm.

"You're _not_ going to kill her. No one is," Bucky rephrased, a sudden intensity crossing over his face, "I won't let that happen."

"Alright," Steve agreed with a calm and steady tone, "You know I don't want to kill anyone. You _know_ that."

"I don't know about your friends."

The words sounded almost like a threat as they poured out, but Steve recognized the intensity.

"You knew her," Steve realized.

"I told you. I trained her."

"Yeah, but you _knew_ her."

Steve's arm was released and he took a few more steps toward the door before looking over his shoulder.

"What's her name?"

"Katya."


	3. Chapter 3

It felt like weeks of searching one dead end after the other, before the team found even a decent lead. In reality, it had only been a few days, but they drug on, each as fruitless as the last. Today felt just like the others, as Barton busied himself with security footage from areas around the attacks, aided by Scott. Sam was busy working with Steve to try and track any functioning SHIELD bases and get word to them before they were next. With preparation, SHIELD would stand a better chance against a stealthy attack. Bucky sat at a table, choosing to look through old files rather than at a screen. This was something solid to him. It was what he knew. It's not that he wasn't tech savvy; he just knew this way better. For what was probably the tenth time that day, his mind ran away from him and drifted back to Siberia.

" _What is that?" he remembered asking the eager girl._

 _When she was younger, she had good days and bad days. Today seemed like a good day. She happily held a small scrap of colored paper folded up on her fist._

" _Nothing!" she replied, defensively._

" _Katya. Show me."_

 _Knowing that he would get his way sooner or later, she held out her fist to him and slowly uncurled her fingers. He took the paper from her hand and unfolded it. It was a travel ad that she had gotten from a newspaper somewhere. The ad showed the Empire State building, proudly protruding above the New York skyline._

" _Why do you have this?" he asked, voice cold and devoid of real emotion._

" _Because," she answered, snatching the paper back from him and looking at it longingly, "I am going to go there someday. I heard you can see the whole world from the top! I want to see for myself."_

" _You will go where you are told to go," he replied mechanically._

" _I will go see New York! You'll see! One day!"_

 _The determined look on her face was mingled with the innocence and hope that she still clung to at that age. It was gone now. It had been ripped from her._

"Steve!" Bucky called out when realization hit him.

Steve and Sam quickly made their way over to him.

"What is it? You find something?" Sam asked, looking at the files to see if there was something they missed that Bucky spotted.

"I have a hunch. No more than that," Bucky admitted.

"Right now, that hunch is all we have," Steve added, "It'll have to do. What is it?"

"I think she'll go to New York."

"Well...that doesn't really narrow it down much," Sam noted, "The state or…?"

"No. The city. It has to be New York City."

"That just means she'd be lost in one of the largest cities in the world," Steve sighed, "How can you be sure?"

"Because she's free," Bucky replied, "She swore she'd go there. Now that she doesn't have anything else, why not go?"

"That's grasping at straws, isn't it?" Sam wondered, "I mean, what if she doesn't. She's clearly got a plan. I don't think she'd stop and go sight seeing."

"The SHIELD attacks. They were in these cities, right?" Bucky checked, pointing to the list of locations included in the file.

"Yeah," Sam replied, "But we can't find a connection."

"She's never been to any of these cities before," Bucky noted, "She's going to all of the places HYDRA wouldn't let her; marking them off the list one at a time. The top of that list is New York City! Now, are there any bases running near there right now?"

"No. HYDRA hit all the major locations in New York and DC," Clint chimed in, walking over to join them, "But...I know of a couple storage units and safe houses that were low profile enough to maybe get overlooked. It's a thin lead, but it's something."

"Storage units?" Bucky looked up at him, interest evident on his face.

"You know, old warehouses to hide any extra tech, gear, or intel off the grid."

"We're gonna need to know where those are," Steve told him.

"I'll see what I can dig up," Clint nodded in reply, going to seek out the locations.

Bucky paused, staring blankly at the files in front of him for a long moment.

"Bucky?" Steve asked, leaning down to look at him.

"I have to go, Steve," he stated, still staring off, "I have to be there."

"You said it yourself, Buck. It's dangerous to go back into the field so soon."

"I can stop her. If it's really her, I can stop her from killing anyone."

Sam crossed his arms and turned to Steve.

"That's a risky move, Cap."

"I have to try!" Bucky insisted, standing suddenly, "Just let me talk to her!"

Steve took a deep breath and nodded.

"You help us find her and stop her and we'll let you go talk to her, alright?" he offered, "Just...make sure you can handle this."

"I know her, Steve. She'll listen to me."

"Then gear up. We get those locations and we move out," Steve decided, stepping out of the room to tell the others.

"We're counting on you, Frosty," Sam reminded Bucky, before following Steve.

Bucky stayed behind in silence. Memories seemed to flood back to him by the hour these past few days. It was a jumbled mess sometimes and perfectly clear others. He only knew one thing: he had to find her. No matter what.

"You really wanted to see the lights, huh?" he asked quietly, looking down at the blurry security photo.

"Alright," Steve prepped them on the jet, "We've got two major locations. We'll split into two teams: a ground team and air support in the jet. Buck, you and I are on the ground. Sam, stick close behind us. Lang, Barton, you two are our eyes in the sky. We check the main location first, then the one uptown. Good?"

"Roger that," Clint agreed from the pilot's seat, moving them into a flight path for the first location.

Steve placed a hand on Bucky's shoulder, which got the other soldier's attention.

"We're going in first. We'll be the first in and the first to stop her if she turns up, alright? You're gonna try and make this work, but I'll be tailing you for backup."

"I can do this," Bucky replied, more convincing himself than Steve.

"Let's hope so."

Bucky and Steve stalked quietly into the old storage facility. Each of them held a sidearm that they hoped they wouldn't need. After the event with the Accords, Steve hadn't really gotten his shield back. It felt odd doing ops without the uniform, but it's what the situation called for and the job needed to be done. The dark building seemed quiet, vacant of any people or even signs that people had been there recently.

"No one's home," Bucky noted quietly, looking around.

Steve simply nodded over to a bolted door on the far side of the room from the entrance. Bucky took his meaning and moved that way, as Steve watched his back on alert. When they reached the door, Bucky looked over his shoulder at Steve. When the signal was given, he drove a metal fist through the edge of the door and ripped the door out of the wall, making a loud bang as it hit the ground.

"That'll do it…" Steve muttered, looking at the destroyed door.

Bucky quickly made his way inside of the smaller room, still finding no sign of people.

"Clear," he sighed, dropping his defensive posturing a bit.

In the center of the room was a stack of metal crates with a tarp thrown over them so that only the corner of one of the lower crates was exposed. Bucky grabbed the tarp and pulled it off, letting it drop to the floor, exposing the large black SHIELD logos on the sides of the crates.

"Subtle," Steve sighed sarcastically at the symbols.

Bucky easily broke one of the crates open to look inside.

"Pretty heavy payload here," he noted, pulling a rifle out of the crate, "No one left to clean up, I guess."

He casually grabbed a few more items and began to strap the extra ammo packs to his tactical suit.

"C'mon, Buck," Steve sighed in disapproval as Bucky slung the rifle over his shoulder.

"Look, it's not like SHIELD's gonna use it," Bucky shrugged, "And we might need it."

Steve wasn't given time to reply as Bucky hurried back out of the room.

"Sam," Steve called over the comm, "This one's clear. Circle around and get us and we'll head to the next location."

"We're a bit late!" Barton contacted back over the comm, rather than Sam, "We just got a hit. The other facility was breached. You two better run, because we're running out of time!"

The two soldiers glances at each other and took off toward the rendezvous to get back on the quinjet.

"Same drill," Steve said shortly after, preparing to jump off the jet for the next location.

"Looks awful quiet in there, Cap," Barton noted, "We might be too late."

"We might not!" Steve added hopefully, jumping off the loading ramp.

Bucky shrugged and jumped down to the pavement after him. Rifle raises, he stalked toward the building with a practiced precision.

"Easy," Steve reminded him, "We want everyone walking away from this."

Bucky nodded and stepped inside the slightly ajar door. It had already been kicked in hard enough to leave a dent in the center of the metal and break the hinges, leaving the door hanging pathetically.

"We're not the first to get here," Bucky noted, pointing out the obvious forced entry.

Steve spotted an agent down and quietly hurried over to him, checking for signs that the man was still alive.

"He's still alive," Steve sighed with relief, "Just knocked out pretty badly. Barton, Lang, you read me?"

"You worry about the threat," Scott replied over the comm, "We'll worry about med evacs."

As they entered further into the building, they found more agents in the same condition: badly injured and out of the way but alive. Had many of them been left there longer, they wouldn't likely have survived. The building seemed to have a lot of rooms filled with similar crates to the last location. These facilities weren't heavily manned and even less so after SHIELD fell, so it was an easy target. Rounding a corner, they saw her. Bucky immediately pulled them back.

"Pull back and help with the agents," Bucky insisted, "Get them loaded up and out of here."

"I'm not leaving you here with-"

"Fall back and trust me."

Hesitantly, Steve stepped back, signalling that he'd be on his comm. Bucky continued to creep back around the corner. It was a matter of seconds before he was spotted. The attacker was who he feared it would be after all. Katya. She pinned an injured agent to the floor by his throat, holding a handgun to him in her other hand. Knowing that the agent didn't have the strength to escape, she risked turning more attention to Bucky.

"No…" Bucky could hear her gasp.

"Easy," he pleaded, lowing his rifle to his side, "You know me?"

"Winter…?" she gasped out, slight shock taking over her expression, "You're...here…"

He stepped forward slowly, but she simply put the gun closer to the agent's head.

"Don't come any closer! I don't know how you're still alive or what you want, but I'm walking out of here or he's not!"

She kicked the agent further onto the floor and pressed a boot to his throat aggressively.

" _Katya!"_


	4. Chapter 4

" _Katya!"_

The woman took her boot off of the agent's throat, still holding her gun to him, and turned to face who called her.

"Stay out of this, Winter!" she hissed back.

"You won't get your answers from him!"

"No, I won't," she agreed as the gun clicked, ready to fire at the twitch of her finger, "So, he's useless to me."

Without any other option, Bucky raised his own gun toward her.

"Don't!" he barked out as an order.

"You gonna shoot me, Soldier?!" she sneered, "Then you better not miss this time!"

"Look at him, Katya! He's young and scared! He doesn't know anything!"

"He's _SHIELD!"_ she snarled, "He deserves to die with SHIELD!"

"I don't care! Focus on the real target! Who really needs to pay for what they did? SHIELD or HYDRA?"

Kat could practically feel the crosshairs of his scope zero in on her.

"They're the same! They won't stop! It needs to be over...to be final!"

Bucky slowly stalked forward, closing in on her. Turning to see his movement, she grabbed the shirt of the SHIELD agent and wrenched him up a bit off the ground, holding the gun flushed against his trembling forehead.

"One more step and he'll need washed off the floor!"

" _Bucky! Fall back! She'll kill him!"_ Steve's voice roared over his comlink.

"Sorry, Steve," Bucky sighed, pulling the device from his ear, easily crushing it in his hand, and dropping it onto the cement floor.

"Katya…" he sighed, lowering his weapon, "You don't want him."

She all but growled as she lifted the agent onto his feet by her one armed hold on him and threw him in front of Bucky. He landed harshly on his hands and knees, blood dripping from the gash on his face. Bucky pulled him back up.

"Run," he hissed.

A second later, the man took off as fast as he was still able.

"You saved your rat," she scoffed, aiming her gun forward at Barnes now, "Now get away from me."

"I told you, I didn't come for him. I'm here for you."

"Do your new friends know that? Don't think I don't know they've got this place blocked off and watched."

"No."

"Like I said," she repeated, holstering her gun to her thigh, "You'd better not miss this time."

"I'm not here to shoot you."

"Pity. That's the only way you're going to stop me."

"What's the point of all of this? This won't solve anything!"

"Objective: eliminate remaining SHIELD personnel and intel in the event of the fall of HYDRA."

"SHIELD fell too. It's over."

"Objective: eliminate all-"

"Katya, it's over! There's no mission left! You can't finish this!"

"Ob-...Objective-"

"Kat, look at me," he sighed, stepping forward and placing a hand on the side of her face.

"R-ready to comply…" she stated weakly, staring up at him.

"Mission aborted. Stand down."

"But-..."

"It's over."

"I am required to report back to-"

"Your S.O." he finished, "Since we're the only ones left, looks like that's me again. You'll come with me."

"No!" she shrieked, stepping back away from him as he reached out his hand, "I...I don't wanna die…"

"Katya…"

She continued to back away further.

"Kat, I won't hurt you," he sighed, voice softening to match a tone that she hadn't heard in a long time, "You know that. Come with me."

He kept his hand outstretched for a long moment of silence, as she just seemed to try to read and study his face and body language.

"I can't….I can't go back!"

"We're not going back. We're not _ever_ going back. It's over."

"And you," she breathed out quietly, "You remember it?"

"I remember everything. I remember that you _trusted_ me. I need you to do it again. _I've got you_."

The familiar words seemed to sink into her very bones, as she felt herself instinctively reaching toward his hand and taking it. He pulled his hand back toward himself, causing her to step forward slowly, closer to him.

"You're hungry," he noticed, "And tired."

"How can I trust you?"

"I don't know," he admitted, "But I promised that I would always take care of you. I never forgot that. Trust that."

The intensity and drive had long since faded from her face. Now, she seemed pale and afraid, clinging onto his hand with both of hers like a child who didn't want to get separated and lost. Bucky listened intently to the surroundings and could faintly hear the engines of a quinjet. It was only a matter of time before Steve would call the op off and go in to get him. They were running out of time.

"We need to go. Now!"

Kat just nodded weakly and looked over his shoulder at one of the warehouse's side entrances. Taking the gesture, Bucky led her quickly that way, still holding her hand for assurance that she wouldn't run. When he kicked the door open, there was a motorcycle waiting for them.

"Good girl."

Clint flew the jet in low enough to get eyes on the exit of the warehouse. They saw the SHIELD agent running out, not hurt enough to merit worrying about too much. As the jet hatch opened, Steve walked to the edge, ready to leap out and diffuse the situation, since he had already loaded up the wounded agents. There were no vehicles nearby and Bucky would be trying to neutralize the threat, or so Steve thought. Before he could jump, the engine of the harley echoed out of the warehouse, followed by the speeding bike itself, with two riders. Even over the roar of the jet and the rumbling of the bike, Bucky could hear Steve call after him as he sped off.

" **Bucky!"**

"Sorry, Steve," he mumbled, "I made a promise."

The quinjet followed as far as they could, but, if the Winter Soldier wanted to disappear, there wasn't much that could stop him. Steve sat back down on the jet as Clint and Sam both turned back from the pilot and copilot seats to look at him.

"What the hell happened back there?" Sam questioned.

"I...I don't know," Steve admitted, still processing, "It was going fine, but just disconnected his comm and took off."

"I thought he was on our side, Cap," Clint noted, "Something else we should know about."

"I thought so too, Barton. There's gotta be a reason."

"Well, whatever it is," Sam sighed, "It better be a damn good one. We lost 'em."

"Buck, what are you doin'?"

The harley pulled off of the main street and into a more populated area of town, where they could easily lose the jet. When Bucky pulled it off to the side and kicked off the engine, they could no longer hear the jet at all.

"They're gone," Kat noticed, reaffirming Bucky's hopes that they hadn't been followed, "But why'd you do that? You all had me trapped. It was an easy catch."

"They wanted me to stop you. I said I would. I did. I never said I'd let them catch you or take you. No one takes you anywhere you don't wanna go. Not again."

"Didn't you just do that?"

"I didn't make you get on the bike."

"Fair enough," she accepted, climbing off of the seat behind him, "You still drive one of these better than anyone, Winter."

"Bucky," he corrected.

" _Bucky?_ You're serious?"

He just gave her a blank look and waited for her to say more.

"Yeah, okay. Bucky it is," she offered a hand, "Nice to officially meet you, Bucky...I guess."

He climbed off the bike and looked down at her with an almost concerned expression.

"I'm still me, Kat. At least...I think I am. I just have a name now."

"That's gonna take some getting used to. Where are we anyway? Aren't you afraid we stick out a bit? With the leather and that arm of yours."

"We're in Brooklyn," Bucky answered, "There's this diner that's been around forever. I don't think they'd care...too much."

"We went there, didn't we?" she asked, "We went to a diner around here back in the sixties. We were around and you broke protocol to take me here for my birthday."

"Yeah," Bucky smiled a bit, "I did, didn't I."

"I'd never had ice cream before," she smiled at the ground, fondly remembering one of the few good memories she held on to.

"For old times sake?"

Once again, Bucky's gloved hand was offered to her.

"A lot's changed, Winter," she sighed, "We're not the same people."

"Maybe not. Maybe that's for the best…or maybe it's not. Doesn't matter. I made a promise."

"That promise is no good!" she reminded him, "All that promise brought was pain. It was because of that dumb promise that they made me listen to you scream until you couldn't stay conscious anymore, taking a punishment that was supposed to be mine! I don't want any part of that again."

"It was worth it," he stated matter-of-factly, "I'd do it again."

"That's a dumb choice."

"It was _my_ choice then. It's _my_ choice now."

The weight of that idea wasn't lost on her. They didn't have the luxury of choice, and the only choice he made made his life harder. He did it for her. He did everything for her.

"I guess I owe you twenty minutes," she shrugged, taking his offered hand.

He walked her toward the diner. In the dark of the street, she was able to hide the small smile that she couldn't force off of her face.

The diner was small, quiet, and all but empty. Bucky picked the particular booth in the corner, where they had sat the first time they ate there together. Kat slid into the booth across from him, ignoring the odd looks from the waitress who was working the night shift.

"What's this really about, _Bucky?"_

"I thought you were…"

"Dead? You mentioned that the last time we ran into each other."

"You didn't stick around long enough to talk."

"Self preservation. I had no guarantee you weren't back to finish the job. I don't even have a real guarantee now, except that you'd have probably done it by now. Do you need information from me first or something?"

"I told you," he sighed, "I didn't want to do that. It wasn't my fault, but...I still did it. I'm sorry."

"Apologies don't make bullets go back in the gun. Nothing does."

"Katya, you know me. I wouldn't-"

"I know you?" she laughed, a bit harshly, "The whole time I "knew" you, you didn't even know you! I knew the Winter Soldier and saw glimpses of whatever was left of who you used to be. I don't have any idea who's sitting across from me right now."

"I'm not James Barnes anymore," he stated quietly, "I'm not the Winter Soldier. I'm...something in between...I think. I want to make this right."

"Is that it, then? I'm the only thing in your ledger that you can fix. The only blood you can wipe off your hands."

"Why do you always have to do that?" he hissed.

"Do what?"

"Put words in my mouth. You're not a mistake, Kat. I don't want to fix you, because there's nothing wrong with you! You're the only thing that I don't regret."

"No regrets, huh?"

"Only one. I let them use me to hurt you."

"Other than that?"

"I don't regret another damn second."

She sighed and ordered two coffees when the waitress came around.

"You really do remember then," Kat accepted, "And...it was pretty good, for such a mess. We were. It got harder after a while. Every time we got thawed out, you were less and less the person I knew. There just wasn't much left and I wasn't sure you'd ever really come back."

"But I did."

"So it seems."

She was quiet for a while, as the waitress brought the coffees and gave both of the leather clad assassins an odd look. Kat just took a long sip of coffee and started out the window. Bucky watched her with a gentle expression. Here she was, back at the diner with him, like no time had passed; only, time did pass. Things had changed too much to ever go back to the way they were. His mind wandered back to the days when she would sneak around and break rules, just to see him and know that he was alive and that, for one more day, everything was going to be alright. Now, here she was - _his_ Kat - and she wouldn't even look at him. He watched her in silence as she drank her coffee, deep in thought.

"I missed you."

"That's all you've got?" Kat scoffed in a bitter, ironic humor.

"It's the truth. Did you ever-"

"Miss you? Did I ever miss you?" she cut in, "Did I miss being driven to train until my hands were bloody and broken? Did I miss being held at gunpoint or knife blade when I did something wrong or disobeyed? Did I miss crying in the corner of some cell, because I didn't know if this time they would torture you to death or not?"

"I didn't want any of that for you…"

"Of course not, but that's what happened. That's the part I remember. What we had was awful! It was disturbed and cruel and all kinds of screwed up! Hell, it was downright toxic!"

"But it was _ours_."

The next things that Kat could remember were the motel door being nearly splintered as it was forced open, the way the mattress knocked the air out of her chest when it hit her back, and the familiar kiss that was so intense that she couldn't breathe until she saw black spots in her vision and pulled away for air. Everything about this was sickeningly familiar to her, but she couldn't find it in her to care. All she cared about was holding on to this very second - holding onto him - and never letting it go. Whoever she'd met at the diner seemed to disappear into the soldier she was used to, as they fell back right into the familiar rhythm as if no time had passed at all. Any thoughts of anger or regret faded away...for then. For now, the only thing that existed to either of them was each other.

The sunlight streaming through the foggy motel window was enough to wake Kat. She groaned at the slight pain behind her eyes as she blinked and adjusted to the light. She pushed herself up onto her elbows, looking around the room. The spot next to her was vacant, which shouldn't have surprised her. She still couldn't help the pang of disappointment and regret.

"Dammit…" she sighed to herself, wrapping the cheap sheets tighter around herself.

She took some comfort in the sound of the shower, when she realized that it was running. It wasn't like him to run out, but she could have done without the fifteen second heart attack of thinking this was the exception. She took the opportunity to quickly gather up her things from where they were scattered all over the room. It took some time to find it all, and she didn't even want to know how her shirt ended up on the ceiling fan. When she was dressed and had all of her gear strapped back on, she took a look at herself in the filthy mirror the room offered. Her hair was a disaster, whatever makeup she'd worn yesterday now slightly resembled Winter Soldier's war paint, and there was no hiding all of the red marks on her neck and shoulders. She was thankful that the soreness in her hips and back could be easily hidden, just like old times. There was no two ways about it: she was a mess. She tried to release the tension in her shoulders, but she couldn't. The thoughts of last night wouldn't leave her alone as her list of bad choices just seemed to keep growing. The satisfaction from the distraction didn't last. She just stared into her own blank expression and hated what she saw even more. The tension wasn't released until it was thrown into the reflection in the form of a determined fist. The glass shattered into a spiderweb of cracks, but didn't fall out of the frame.

"I'm sorry…" she heard from behind her in a quiet tone.

When she turned around, she noticed that he had started gathering his own things. His shirt and tactical vest still laid on the floor, but he'd gotten dressed in the pants and boots and started to gather up holsters.

"I didn't…I didn't mean for this to happen," he continued.

"Did we ever?" she scoffed.

"No."

"I guess it's easier to explain it all away when we thought any day would be our last…"

He looked behind her at the mirror and then at her, ready to go without saying a word.

"You're leaving?"

"We're done here."

Barnes stepped closer, pulling her against his chest. Kat absentmindedly ran her hands over his bare shoulders, taking the time to lightly trace along the scar on his left, where the skin became metal.

"You could stay," he offered, "Or we could both go."

"Where would we go?"

"Anywhere."

She slowly ran her hands back up his shoulders and up around his neck, taking one to brush a strand of shower damp brown hair out of his face. She leaned forward to close the space between them with a soft, sweet kiss.

"Somethin' tells me I'll see you around, Sugar."

She pulled away and sauntered out of the room, leaving the broken door to fall out of the frame behind her. No matter how much he wanted to go after her, there was no way of making her stay. It hurt to watch her leave, far more than he expected, but he knew it was only a matter of time. After all, it was his turn to get left behind and watch her go. Minutes passed and he was still set on the door, but she didn't come back. Finally, he continued gathering his things and getting ready to leave.

"What the…"

He grumbled when he noticed that both the keys to the bike and one of his handguns were gone.

"Damn it, Katya!"

The bike engine roared outside and faded off down the street, leaving him standing half dressed in a motel room, with a broken door and no transportation. He had one option left. He grabbed his phone from off of the floor where Kat had tossed it, opened it to Steve's contact screen, and dropped it back down onto the bed. He'd bailed out on Steve for another chance at being with Katya again, and she was gone. He couldn't go back to Steve now. He didn't have anywhere to go. She didn't stay.


	5. Chapter 5

To call the rundown apartment a safe house would be generous. The more accurate term for it would have more accurately been "rat trap" or "hole in the wall." Nonetheless, it did the job for Katya. It was overlooked and well hidden in the shadows of the large city. It was a risk hiding out in New York, close to shield and their red, white, and blue poster child: Captain America. His team had already found her once and they didn't seem too happy with her work. However, even that didn't even matter to her at the moment. The only thing that mattered now was trying to piece together how the Winter Soldier had fit into all of this.

The bottle in her hand had been momentarily forgotten as she sat and stared forward at the blank wall across from her. The cracked plaster wall hadn't changed since she's started watching it, yet she couldn't tear her attention away from it. Finally, she tore her gaze away and lowered it back down to the bottle in her hand. Lifting the clear glass to her mouth, she tipped the bottle and let a swig of the liquid run down her throat. The alcohol burned, but she barely noticed that anymore. The only thing that seemed to register to her was the warm sensation that spread through her blood as she drank. Pulling the bottle away from here again, she looked down at it, eyes catching on the smearing of red lipstick. She became fixated on the blood red color, staring blankly as memories fought their way into the from of her mind.

The hallways of the medical wing - where the labs weere located - were clear. It wasn't normal, but Katya didn't think to question it. The doctors and their guards must have had more important things to monitor than her. Taking the opportunity, she'd carefully disconnected herself from the devices that they had hooked up to her to track her progress. After this, it didn't take long for her to pick the outdated lock on the door and creep into the cold, dark halls. With any luck, her size and the fact that no one was looking for her would keep her from getting spotted somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. It didn't matter, she reminded herself. She heard what the scientists said. She didn't have long anyway.

After doing her best to recall the way down to the more secure areas, she found what she was looking for. This was the area where special projects were store. This was where she would find him. The cryo containment cell was empty, so she looked for the holding area where the Asset was put between missions when he was awake. No one would be looking to prep him for a job in the middle of the night; at least, she hoped not. When she reached the door, she hopefully pressed in the code that she had figured out the last time. A loud buzz told her that she was wrong.

"No…!" She harshly whispered to herself, looking over her shoulder to see if anyone had heard the sound. No one had. They must have changed the code, however, which changed her plan entirely. The more reasonable part of her thoughts told her to turn around and go back before she was caught. That part never won. Instead, she carefully began working at the edges of the rusted panel. To her silent delight, she was able to get a grip on it with her small hands and hear a "pop" as the panel snapped free of the wall. Lowering the front and leaving it to hang from the wires behind it, she reached her hand in behind it into the wall. With more luck, she'd be able to reach what she was looking for. In the event of a power outage, the door would automatically open, making sure that no HYDRA doctors were trapped inside with an asset. Yanking the power cord loose, a shock jolted into her hand, causing her to reel back and cradle it; she was right, though. The door had slid open when the power surge occurred.

Inside the containment room, just as she'd expected, was the Asset. Often when she would try to see him, he was on ice or being contained under higher security. For a moment, she wondered if he would even remember her at all. If they had the chance to wipe him again, he wouldn't remember anything. Still, it was worth a try.

"Солдат?"

The soldier, who was sitting in the middle of the blank, metal cell, looked up from the ground to stare at Katya oddly. Thee stare was blank and hollow. He kept the eye contact, but said nothing. After a long silence, a hint of recognition flashed across his face. "K-...Katya? Why-...why are you here?"

This wasn't anything that Katya was used to seeing. She was accustomed to a soldier, loud, steady, and angry. This man in front of her didn't look like that. He was broken and confused. He spoke in a soft, unsure tone and in English, rather than orders barked in Russian. "English not so good," she admitted quietly, "But...I come see you."

"To see me?" If the man didn't look confused before, he did now. "Where are we."

"Is home." As she answered, she quietly moved closer to sit down on the floor beside him. "The room cold."

He nodded slowly, watching her movements. "Why come see me?"

"You're alone." The statement was delivered simply as she looked up at him. "I am alone. Be alone together." It was that moment that she first looked at the weapon beside her and saw a bit of a person behind it. Friends werren't easy to come by, but no one else was likely to talk to him like a person and she had nothing to lose.

Shaking her head, Kat set the bottle aside and stood up, walking to the center of the room and kneeling down onto the floor. Pulling out the duffel bag that she'd hid under the loose floorboards, she unzipped it and pulled out the few items that she'd collected before she'd snuck her way into the U.S. Among them were an old file, a set of metal dog tags, and a familiar red journal with a star on the cover. It had taken her some time to find these items, but she was patient and determined. Now, she had something to bargain with if the time came. Laying out the file and opening it up, she scanned over the information. She'd already read and memorized the file a hundred times over, but now it made more sense. Now, she had the proof that she had been looking for.

"James Buchanan Barnes." The words felt foreign to say; almost as foreign as her convincing yet false American accent. It was true. He had recovered - at least mostly - from what HYDRA did to him. She had too many questions and the same old file told her nothing new. She needed more. With no mission and no goal. The only thing she had left was trying to put all of the pieces together. HYDRA had only ever given her scarps of the truth. Now that she was free, the only thing she could think to do was to try and fit everything together to find out exactly what she was and why they had made her that way. SHIELD was turning up nothing but dead ends; that method was getting her nowhere and drawing unwanted attention to her. Now, however, there was a new lead. Now, she had solid proof that Winter Soldier was not only alive, but also remembered everything from inside of HYDRA. She had questions. He had answers. The trick was finding a way to safely bring those ends together, without him knowing why she was searching. He couldn't know.

As she poured back over the information over and over again, his voice seemed to echo in her head. He had offered to run with her. The emotional side of her mind wanted to believe him. It was all she had wanted for so long that the thought had brought up emotions that she was no longer used to feeling. She silently cursed herself for feeling like a stupid young girl. She knew better than to trust this and let it affect her. This is why she'd turned it down. This is why it was so dangerous to put herself around him more than she absolutely had to.

Focus! She tried to scold the feeling out of her. He's not your friend. He's one of them now. He's the enemy. The thoughts struck something deep within her and hurt to consider. As this idea crossed her mind, the vivid memories flashed through her mind. Subconsciously, she placed her hand over one of the bullet scars on her abdomen. The raised scarring was one of three spots like it that she often used as a constant reminder. Reminder of what exactly, she didn't know. Perhaps of what Winter did to her or what HYDRA had him do. Either way, her better judgement told her that Winter - or Bucky as he was known now - wasn't the real enemy. But knowing that didn't make the scars fade.

Shoving the file and tags back into the bag, she zipped it up and hit the whole stash back under the flooring. The journal, however, she let out. That she would need far sooner than she'd hoped. She silently hated the need for the damn thing altogether, but, if it meant survival, some precautions were worth taking. Grabbing it, she moved to get the rest of her immediate gear. She had a choice to make and she was running out of time to make it. It was entirely possible that the soldier that she was used to was still a part of this man. If that was the case, the only thing she knew was looking for him and sticking together, as they always had. The other possibility was that the only part of her soldier left was the part that had been sent to kill her. Was she really willing to risk that? Was she willing to risk her life on the chance that whoever is leftover from what HYDRA destroyed was who she was looking for? The main thought of doubt crossed her mind over and over again. They'd sent him to kill her. There was no questioning that. So, why didn't he?


End file.
